Photos emerged online overnight that allegedly reveal the design of Fitbit's first "true" smartwatch, rumors of which we covered last month. The images were originally published by Yahoo Finance and appear to show that the company's upcoming Apple Watch rival looks very similar to the $150 Fitbit Blaze fitness watch, which has been on sale since early 2016.
The watch's square face, physical buttons, and flexible elastomer wristband closely resemble the company's Blaze. Several Fitbit employees who saw the design are said to have complained about it, according to previous reports.
Specifications of the smartwatch, which is said to be codenamed "Higgs" internally, include a color display with 1,000 nits of brightness similar to the Apple Watch Series 2, built-in GPS, heart-rate monitoring, a full-fledged app store, contactless payments, storage for music, Pandora support, and four days of battery life. The $300 watch was previously thought to have an aluminum unibody design that supports swappable watch bands.
The smartwatch was initially said to be launching this spring, but technical problems have reportedly plagued the product and the company is now thought to be aiming for a fall release.
Fitbit is also rumored to be releasing a pair of Bluetooth earbuds similar in design to Apple's BeatsX buds. Codenamed "Parkside" internally, the $150 wireless earbuds will hang around the neck and be marketed as an accessory for the forthcoming smartwatch.
A lot is riding on the success of Fitbit's upcoming products, after the company faced one of its "largest declines ever" in the fourth quarter of 2016, which resulted in layoffs of about 6 percent of its staff. Although the company remained above Apple Watch in the number of units shipped, it has gradually been losing market share to rivals Apple and Xiaomi.
The watch's square face, physical buttons, and flexible elastomer wristband closely resemble the company's Blaze. Several Fitbit employees who saw the design are said to have complained about it, according to previous reports.
Specifications of the smartwatch, which is said to be codenamed "Higgs" internally, include a color display with 1,000 nits of brightness similar to the Apple Watch Series 2, built-in GPS, heart-rate monitoring, a full-fledged app store, contactless payments, storage for music, Pandora support, and four days of battery life. The $300 watch was previously thought to have an aluminum unibody design that supports swappable watch bands.
The smartwatch was initially said to be launching this spring, but technical problems have reportedly plagued the product and the company is now thought to be aiming for a fall release.
Fitbit is also rumored to be releasing a pair of Bluetooth earbuds similar in design to Apple's BeatsX buds. Codenamed "Parkside" internally, the $150 wireless earbuds will hang around the neck and be marketed as an accessory for the forthcoming smartwatch.
A lot is riding on the success of Fitbit's upcoming products, after the company faced one of its "largest declines ever" in the fourth quarter of 2016, which resulted in layoffs of about 6 percent of its staff. Although the company remained above Apple Watch in the number of units shipped, it has gradually been losing market share to rivals Apple and Xiaomi.
Tag: Fitbit
34 comments
Top Rated Comments
(View all)
34 months ago
Watch looks slim and beautiful, it will be a tough fight for apple watch
What? It looks terrible...Why are the bezels so thick?? Why did they put "Fitbit" right there on the front under the screen? It won't be much cheaper than the Apple Watch, and they are having trouble getting the GPS and waterproofing right, so they're going to be a year behind on that as well. Good luck to them, but this looks awful, and does not seem like a comparable option to the Apple Watch at all.
With Christmas under two weeks away, we're now entering last-minute holiday shopping season. Although some of the best deals may have already come and gone this year, many brands and retailers...
Repair site iFixit managed to get a Mac Pro on Friday, and has kicked off its traditional teardown with an uncasing and first impressions video.
The video shows the process of removing the Mac...
Through Apple's AC Wellness services that offer health benefits to Cupertino employees, Apple has begun providing its staff with free genetic testing, reports CNBC.
AC Wellness operates...
A year to the day after Apple announced plans to spend $1 billion on a new corporate campus in Austin, Texas, to initially support 5,000 employees with the potential to grow to 15,000, television...
Shortly after the Pro Display XDR became available to order this week, Stephen Hackett of Relay FM noted that the iMac Pro was not included in the list of Mac models compatible with the display on...
AT&T today announced that it has launched its 5G network in its first ten markets: Birmingham, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Providence, Rochester, San Diego, San Francisco,...
Tim Cook continued his tour of Asia this week with a trip to Bangkok, Thailand. The Apple CEO has been documenting the journey on his Twitter account.
Cook kicked things off with a visit to...
Apple today announced the addition of "Ultimate Rivals" from Bit Fry Game Studios to its Apple Arcade gaming service.
Ultimate Rivals is a sports game franchise that brings athletes from...
